85lebaront2

Interesting issues. I have only had two vehicles with Hydroboost, both GMs with the 5.7L Diesel and their brakes were the typical GM, lock if you look at them on wet pavement. I did a rear disc conversion on my best friend's 1995 F360 crew cab DRW pickup, his is a Powerstroke and uses a vacuum pump to operate a conventional booster and he was complaining of poor stopping power. One night we had been working at my old house getting it ready to sell and in the interest of expediency I told him just drive Darth. First corner he almost put both of us through the windshield. The disc conversion was by a company called EGR brakes and is essentially GM stuff. It took me a bit to get it right, I have a lengthy document I put together with pictures showing the issues. His ultimate cause was a bad vacuum pump. If I were to do a rear disc conversion, I would prefer a drum type parking brake for two reasons (a) one less potential leak point where the parking brake actuator goes through the caliper and (b) the drum style parking brake can be used even if the caliper is broken. My 1986 Chrysler LeBaron has this style rear disc brakes. Before I went any further, I would look at the stock caliper, master cylinder and rear wheel cylinder sizes. FWIW, the larger the master cylinder, the greater the force required, smaller takes less force, but will have more travel.

Make sure it is the correct weight and while it is being changed, drain the converter so the front trans seal can be changed, check for play in the pump bushing and slop in the end of the crank where the torque converter snout fits. I also like to learn from problems, not just throw parts at it until one solves it.

Can you get a strobe like that you can adjust the flash speed on? If you can, then from underneath work on "freezing" the up and down motion and look at the location of (a) the balancer, (b) the torque converter/flex plate (put paint on 3 of the 4 nuts so they are identifiable with the strobe). Run it to the worst vibration with the plastic converter drain access plug and torque converter nut access plate removed. Hopefully you will find the heavy spot. Once you find it, use some long bolts so you can slide the E4OD back far enough to rotate the torque converter. Take the nuts off first and shove it back, once you have enough clearance, rotate the converter one half turn, reassemble and repeat the previous test. If the vibration is gone or changes one way or the other (more or less shake) you have found the problem. If the shake is either opposite or the same as the flexplate weight, then that weight is wrong, too heavy it will be down when the back of the engine is down, too light and it will be up.

The dimensional differences in cab length that I know of (easiest way is to use wheelbase of the 8' bed trucks) Standard cab to super cab, add 22", for crew cab, add another 13" so using crew cab running boards you would have a 13" long section alongside the front of the bed which could be useful for loading/unloading things in the front part of the bed. The only issue I can think of that could present a problem is mounting the rear portion of the running boards. Darth has an old (1986 vintage) set of cab length and bed from cab to rear wheels DeeZee running boards. The cab length boards are mounted primarily by long aluminum plates bolted to the floor flanges under the cab. Front has aluminum plates that are attached to the back of the front wheel arches on the fenders, there are three angled braces from the bottom of the running boards to the inner floor flange and a pretty substantial brace structure at the back of the cab. Depending on how the running boards you are considering are made, you might be able to just cut the extra 13" off. My DeeZee boards are an aluminum extrusion so are pretty substantial as far as strength (right side had been bent before I purchased Darth and it was a real pain to get straight). Hope this helps, I do have some decent pictures of the mounts on Darth. DeeZee no longer makes the style I have, but were able to come up with a later mount kit that worked. I did replace all the rusted 1/4-20 fasteners with stainless ones from Fastenal. FWIW, standard cab 8' bed has a 133" wheelbase, super cab 8' bed has a 155" wheel base and crew cab 8' bed a 168" wheelbase.

I used a Yukon set from RA on my best friend's 10.25" Sterling. Never did an 8.8", but have done some other similar ones (GM and MGB Spicer style).

There is a Ford special tool that is used to compress the lifters one at a time and there is a sequence given in the service manuals (which depends on the firing order). I have actually never had to do anything on a later Windsor engine, the newest one I had was a 1970 1/2 Falcon that originally had positive stop studs with the "rail" rockers but ended up with a set of 1965 289 4 barrel heads with adjustable rockers. Other than that I had a 260, 312, 390 and two 429s and one 460.

Good point, except Darth's was on the truck when I bought him in April 1994.

There is a lifter collapsed clearance spec on any of the torque to stop rocker setups. Using a 1994 5.0L the following specs are given: Allowable limits 0.071 - 0.171 in Desirable limits 0.091 - 0.151 in

Mark Ten, Mark Ten B and Mark Ten C along with their GM only breakerless conversion. Preston Carburetion was a distributor for them until they let anyone have them for less than my cost. I had one on my Shelby, one with the breakerless conversion on my Jetfire and sold many of them. Manufactured by Delta products.

Mat, I will agree with you. I have been lucky in the 18 years I will have owned Darth this April. One on the road flat, actually a blowout of the left outside dual at 75 mph going around Salisbury MD returning from my son's house in Falling Waters WV. My nice solid running board rear mount saved the dually fender from carnage and I was able to pull far enough off on the right side that I was clear of the right travel lane. Since Darth has a deep V5 receiver integrated into the bumper the first item was to get the spare off. I used the jack to raise the right rear enough that I could get the spare tire carrier down and the wheel and tire off. This wasn't fun between the weight and size so I decided some improvements were in order, more on that later. With the tire off, I reconnected the tire carrier, lowered the jack and set about getting the blown tire off. Using my large cross wrench, after removing the wheel nut covers, I broke all 8 of the 9/16-18 nuts loose, then jacked up the left end of the axle under the area between the spring U-bolts. With it raised enough, I removed the nuts and wrestled the wheel off and rolled it out of the way, then rolled the spare over and coaxed it over the studs. Started all the nuts without the fake chrome wheel trim and snugged them, lowered the truck and tightened them as well as I could without a long breaker bar. In the interest of expediency, I simply stuck the bad tire behind the load I had in Darth and left it there, stowed the jack and handle. Now, I found as I was getting the tire off the carrier that the large plastic "universal" retainer Ford used on these is a royal pain to get aligned on the dually wheel as it mounts bowl down onto the carrier bar and wants to go everywhere you don't want it to as you attempt to capture it. Retainer: I decided that since the retainer has a small convoluted lip for the dually rims, I would take the carrier bar off, attach the wheel to it and put a pair of bolts and nuts as guide pins for the wheel. This makes wrestling with the tire a bit easier, particularly when trying to keep it centered while raising the carrier bar back up.

Gary has a list of a lot of these, but it will help if the emission code, example 4-63G-R0

Gary, if you remember we did that on my "Darth Vader" thread, but left "The Darth Vader Project" thread unlocked.

SU carburetters are a British unit with two moving parts, the throttle valve and the piston to which is attached a metering needle that goes into the jet. The series is an H, and there are H HD and HS versions, size is expressed as the number of 1/4" parts to the diameter of the bore (H4 = 1". H6 = 1 1/2", H8 = 2") The second letter is used for the design variants, H being the original design with an internal fuel passage to the jet which slid in a gland assembly, HS for the style with an external plastic line enclosed in a spring for protection, HD the jet is molded to a rubber diaphragm that seals the fuel from leaking. Starting enrichment is done by pulling the jet down into the bottom of the body so the tapered needle has a smaller cross section and admits more fuel. Float chambers on the H and HD models are rigidly mounted to the main body on the HS they are mounted with rubber inserts. There was one last version called the thermal type SU which has the float chamber integral with the main body and uses a short bimetal tab to adjust the jet height allowing the jet to move up to a leaner setting as the under bonnet temperature rises. Since Gary has weighed in. SUs are generally found in pairs, sometimes alone and occasionally in trios. I have not seen them in a quartet, but have seen their cousin, the Zenith-Stromberg CD in a quartet on early V12 Jaguars (which are a nightmare all their own).

Gee, Gary, looks like the one I posted, just rotated 90°. As to Carburettors hissing, try a group of SUs. You can however, synchronize them by the hiss using a length of vacuum hose held near your ear. Zenith-Stromberg CDs can also be set this way also Webers.

Actually, Matt, my first thing to look at on a rough running 300 is the actual carburetor as the harmonic vibrations on these will shake the carburetor apart. Start with the bottom joint in that Carter YFA as if it gets loose you get an air leak into the idle circuit and loss of the vacuum signal to the metering rod diaphragm.

7655S is the Carter model number for the carburetor.

Here's what I have show as "all" for 1985 300 engines.

I just sent you an email, if you have the code number for the label it will help.

Based on what the vacuum advance has added in the past testing, it added a LOT! So yes little less on the centrifugal would be the way to go. Dave ---- Let me try once again to explain spark advance and how it works and affects the engine. First, mechanical advance (centrifugal) is geared to what the engine needs for best power. Not enough and you don't get the power, too much and you get detonation. Race engines, industrial and marine engines use only mechanical advance systems. These are for best power and are not concerned with economy. Different engines, react differently to total advance, and an engine that is lugged (heavily loaded at low rpm) can and will destroy itself, usually by burning or grenading a piston. Ford engines are fairly forgiving, but still need a proper curve. Best example I can give on the is the Engine Masters competition. A good friend in Newport News and his son run big block Chevrolet engines. Engine Masters changed the format a few years ago, old program was to run you engine in its best power range, several pulls being averaged, new program, everyone runs from your engine's idle, to max rpm. Chevy 396/454 engines were designed to fit in place of the 348/409 W engines so it is only a little bigger that a small block Chevy, Since the 454 has a longer stroke than a 460, the rods have a lot of angularity to the cylinder walls, the cylinders are siamesed so cooling becomes an issue. The 460 "lugs" quite well, as do the 300 and the Ford 400 On your engine. the stroke is 3.98 inches, cooling is good for an in-line engine, but the longer stroke takes more time for the mixture to burn so it is a fine line between enough advance and detonation. I would temporarily disconnect the vacuum advance, and concentrate on, best power and running with the centrifugal advance only. I do not know if someone has a coolant flow modification on these like the Chrysler Turbocharged fours. Water enters the block near the bottom of #1 cylinder and flows toward the flywheel end, it comes up into the head at several locations and exits through a "water box" between # 3 and #4 cylinders. These engines are prone to heat problems at #4 combustion chamber and are frequently fitted with a bleed off in the end of the head. Vacuum advance is the system that was added sometime in the 30s or 40s to improve fuel economy. It's purpose is to give the engine all the advance it needs for best economy. It can give some detonation, particularly at light throttle, Engineers found that the EGR flow could and would reduce this. I would get the engine where it runs best on the mechanical advance first, then start experimenting with adding vacuum a little at a time. This should have a beneficial effect on fuel economy.

As for an easy fix to delete, I've never removed one from a truck with electric pumps and tried it without (that would be a good Bill question). If you had any plans to switch to a mechanical pump, that would be an option but not one I'd consider on a leak alone. Where is it leaking? I went with stainless fuel line from the separator to the carb feed line and had to really crank it down hard, let if off, then crank it down hard again to get mine to not leak at that fitting. This is more so a problem with stainless though as it doesn't seat as well but have you tried reseating it, assuming it's leaking at a fitting? I never had mine leak, but unfortunately it and all of the other stuff is long gone after the EFI conversion. It is nothing more than a crimped cylinder with 3 inverted flare fittings. If it is leaking at the crimp, or where the fittings attach I would imagine it could be soldered or brazed. It is a necessary component of the hot fuel handling package on F series with the 460 and AC as the engine heat will cause vapor lock on the mechanical pump in hot weather in traffic. The vapor separator serves to return gas vapor from the heat to the source tank. One thing you have to understand, this was to fix a problem that was caused by a decision to drop the 460 from the "new" downsized truck body in 1980 and just having the 400 as the biggest V8 available. After Chevy/GMC with the 454 V8 was killing Ford in the towing market, Ford had two choices, concede the towing market the GM or bring back the big gun, the 460. Since the 1980 truck frame and engine compartment were designed around the 351M/400 as the biggest engine, the length and width or the 460 presented a problem as did the radiator opening. Once installed the 460 pretty well fills the entire space available, even the water pump hub is extremely close to the radiator. Everything from the front crossmember on the frame up and around is pretty well 460 specific. Ford also made a running change in the exhaust system in 1984 from a single system to a dual to the muffler system. Bottom line, there were a lot of running changes as Ford corrected problems resulting from stuffing an engine they never intended to use into a chassis that ended up with an 18 year run (1980-1997).

I noticed this on Elyza when I was sorting the trim out. I am sorely tempted to do this "mod" as it is a clear safety upgrade. Thanks for the info on having to stick with the 80-86 belt retractors. I may still have a pair of shoulder belts left over from Darth.

You probably could do that, never had one to try it with, risk might be keeping the supply hose from coming off the bleeder on the slave cylinder. I have owned 3 vehicles with hydraulic clutches and driven many others. I taught my supervisor in the lab that trick, he had a Fiat X1 9 where the master is up front and the slave behind. Having driven full mechanical clutch cars (1964 Falcon, 1966 Shelby), cable clutch cars (1964 and 1965 Corvairs, 1981 Omni, 1987 Horizon) and hydraulic clutch vehicles (1958 F100, 1959 MGA, 1961 Mercedes-Benz 220Sb, 1963 Jaguar E-type and lots of the last of the MGBs as I dealer prepped them) I prefer the hydraulic clutches for ease of operation and smoothness. Both the Falcon and Shelby broke the Z-bars by splitting them at the ends where the lever was welded to the tube, the cable clutches had a habit of giving little or no warning before the cable broke and the hydraulic could also fail without much warning, particularly where the plastic line ran close to the exhaust.

Since many of us do not have a 5.0L EFI 1985/86 truck, relay location and wire colors would help immensely. Of the two relays, the one under the dash is the EEC power relay. On that one, large yellow wire is hot at all times, black with light green dot is always grounded (at the previously mentioned plug, C101), white with light blue hash is hot with the key on, dark blue will be hot with the key on and the relay energized. The second relay is the fuel pump cutoff relay, it is underhood on the firewall. On that one the yellow wire is hot at all times, pink with black hash is hot when the relay is closed, the red wire is powered by the EEC power relay through a blue fusible link near the power relay, this powers most of the EFI system, the tan with light green dot wire is grounded by the EEC, briefly when the key is turned on, and continuously once the EEC receives a signal from the distributor that lets it know the engine is turning. I would start by checking, in the following order, power, key off, yellow wires on both relays should be hot. Second, check the black with light green dot wire for a good ground, with a good meter it should have very low resistance to ground. Third, key on, check for power at the white with light blue hash wire. If these checks are good, plug in the relay with the key on, you should feel it click even if you don't hear it. If it doesn't click, check that the black with light green dot wire isn't showing battery voltage, if it is that C101 connector has way too much resistance. With it closed, check for power at the dark blue wire, if you have power there, move to the red wire beyond the fusible link where you should still have power. Once you have finished and hopefully found and fixed the problem, you should be ok. If you get through those tests, and still no start, it is time to check for fuel pump power, but if you can hear pump running sound and have fuel pressure you should be good there. The fuel pump relay can be activated with the key on, by grounding the tan with light green dot wire at the diagnostic test connector near the solenoids in the right front fender. Good luck with it!

Here is a trick from a Mercedes-Benz service manual. On their cars in the late 60s they started using an inside the car clutch master cyl that sits on an angle and is virtually impossible to bleed normally. Their method is to take a hose that will fit over the bleeder screws and run it from the left front caliper bleeder to the clutch slave bleeder. Loosen the clutch slave bleeder about 1 - 1 1/2 turns, using a helper or pressure bleeder, bleed the left front caliper through the clutch system. This pushes the air to the top and out. The one recommendation I have on this, if there is a top/bottom on the slave, use the bottom for the bleeder so air has to come out through the master.

Gary, it probably also has to do with the mounting location. Bench seats have a total of 3 belt sets, left, right and center. The inboard portion of the outer belts are the buckle and they share the bolts with the center belt. On Captain's chairs, the inner may attach to the seat base as it does on some E-series vehicles. Now for an interesting fact I discovered on Darth, if you have a crew cab, the rear of the cab (back wall and corners) are the same pieces as a standard cab. The corner trim is also the same. There is a blank filler inserted where the seat belt would come through and there is a threaded hole under the rear trim with a rubber plug in it. At the top corner, behind the trim is a mount for a seat belt retractor, it has the hole stamped in it, but it was never tapped. An extra set of front shoulder belts can be installed there by tapping the hole with a 7/16-20 tap. This brings the rear seat outboard belts up to modern standards for securing a child seat. You have to use 1980-1986 belts, as the retractor was moved to near the bottom of the pillar/corner in 1987. The retractor has to be mounted in the correct orientation in order for it to function properly.